“Ecosystem services” is not a useful frame and does not support biodiversity maintenance (read my summary or the relevant section in Maier’s book). Biodiversity comes with many disservices (think of pollinators of noxious weeds, crop pests, diseases...) and its conservation can stand in the way of services. Any unbiased assessment of the question whether biodiversity is valuable on ecosystem grounds must include those disservices and the context of non-ecosystem services. More importantly, it is not diversity (of species, functions or other categories) that performs valuable services, but particular species or populations. It is a category mistake to confuse biodiversity with individual species.
To let you know, I don’t believe ecosystem services matter beyond the fact that we depend on those services, directly or indirectly, and don’t have readily available substitutes. Nature can be inconvenient and messy, but I think humanity has to protect it in order to get any good from it. Biodiversity supports provision of services through protection of habitats of known service providers and through additional services from unidentified (or poorly known) service providers.
The acknowledgement of services that ecosystems provide is an act of intellectual honesty or of using the scout mindset. We don’t have a way to replace services if we judge them imperfect or even inadequate, thus the inconvenience of having to accommodate demands to protect biodiversity. For example, once bees stop pollinating crops because of heat waves destroying crops and the rest of bee habitats, we will suffer lackluster service from those few wild bee species that we acknowledge as direct ecosystem service providers. I could then criticize the lack of value of wild bees in general (for example, accuse bee species of being costly to maintain and fickle providers of pollinator services) or wish humanity had protected them better.
Rainforests are another inconvenient part of Earth’s biosphere. I could make appeals to protect the habitat of the Chocolate Midge or discuss the benefits of moisture provided by rainforest local climate or the carbon sink service provided by rainforest biomass or the undiscovered rainforest plants that could have medicinal value but the truth is I don’t eat chocolate and I don’t live near a rainforest and I’m not sick with any dread disease and I believe that climate change is self-amplifying now. Plus the only thing that would happen to me in a rainforest is a bite from some poisonous animal. I’d like to stay as far away from rainforests as I can. But do I think rainforest biodiversity provides services and has obvious value? Yes I do.
“Ecosystem services” is not a useful frame and does not support biodiversity maintenance (read my summary or the relevant section in Maier’s book). Biodiversity comes with many disservices (think of pollinators of noxious weeds, crop pests, diseases...) and its conservation can stand in the way of services. Any unbiased assessment of the question whether biodiversity is valuable on ecosystem grounds must include those disservices and the context of non-ecosystem services. More importantly, it is not diversity (of species, functions or other categories) that performs valuable services, but particular species or populations. It is a category mistake to confuse biodiversity with individual species.
To let you know, I don’t believe ecosystem services matter beyond the fact that we depend on those services, directly or indirectly, and don’t have readily available substitutes. Nature can be inconvenient and messy, but I think humanity has to protect it in order to get any good from it. Biodiversity supports provision of services through protection of habitats of known service providers and through additional services from unidentified (or poorly known) service providers.
The acknowledgement of services that ecosystems provide is an act of intellectual honesty or of using the scout mindset. We don’t have a way to replace services if we judge them imperfect or even inadequate, thus the inconvenience of having to accommodate demands to protect biodiversity. For example, once bees stop pollinating crops because of heat waves destroying crops and the rest of bee habitats, we will suffer lackluster service from those few wild bee species that we acknowledge as direct ecosystem service providers. I could then criticize the lack of value of wild bees in general (for example, accuse bee species of being costly to maintain and fickle providers of pollinator services) or wish humanity had protected them better.
Rainforests are another inconvenient part of Earth’s biosphere. I could make appeals to protect the habitat of the Chocolate Midge or discuss the benefits of moisture provided by rainforest local climate or the carbon sink service provided by rainforest biomass or the undiscovered rainforest plants that could have medicinal value but the truth is I don’t eat chocolate and I don’t live near a rainforest and I’m not sick with any dread disease and I believe that climate change is self-amplifying now. Plus the only thing that would happen to me in a rainforest is a bite from some poisonous animal. I’d like to stay as far away from rainforests as I can. But do I think rainforest biodiversity provides services and has obvious value? Yes I do.